Happy Administrative Professionals Week!

Another Administrative Professionals Week is upon us wherein we celebrate the hard work and efforts of administrative professionals. Due to the recession and downsizing throughout offices across the country, everyone has had to work harder. That's why this year the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) is expanding their celebration to include all office professionals. To recognize everyone's hard work during this difficult time, the theme for the 2011 IAAP Administrative Professionals Week and Administrative Professionals Day (Wednesday, April 27) is: This year, celebrate all office professionals.

There are many ways that your office can celebrate Administrative Professionals Day. Some offices celebrate by throwing parties for their administrative staff while others give individuals gifts or special lunches outside the office. The IAAP suggests offering additional training opportunities and seminars to help your staff improve their skills.

Since April is also Stress Awareness Month, I think a great way to celebrate Administrative Professionals Week is to find ways to make everyone's day less stressful. When I'm stressed, I find that regular exercise and riding my Harley are two of my favorite ways to unwind. To get even more ideas on what people can do, I polled my Executive Council on what they do to relieve everyday stress.

Most responded that exercise like running, swimming and yoga were great stress relievers, while others said activities such as meditation and cooking help them relax after a stressful day. One seemingly obvious but often overlooked suggestion several people made was to cut off all connection to work while at home. It may sound tempting to keep your quantity of e-mails down over the weekend or while you're on vacation, but it's likely causing more stress because you're limited to what you're able to do when you're away from the office. While at work you focus all your time and energy into your job, so shouldn't you focus all your time and energy into your family when you're at home?

I hope everyone has a fun and stress-free Administrative Professionals Week! How do you or your office plan to celebrate this year?